“Don’t be crazy.”
You’re already hearing the exhortations to Donald Trump. I didn’t see “crazy” specifically on Tuesday, but I did see “crackpot,” when Michael Bloomberg not-so-gently enjoined the President-elect to refrain from letting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. anywhere near roles where he’d have a say over public health policy in the new administration. “Through his support for Operation Warp Speed, Trump helped oversee one of the great scientific breakthroughs of the 21st century,” Bloomberg (the man, not his company) wrote. “He should be celebrating that achievement, not undermining it.”
It’s as unfortunate as it is amusing that the only way to sway Trump on critical matters is by flattering him. The price for his attention is adulation. “Sir, Edward Jenner hasn’t anything on you in the field of vaccines, why blemish your immunological legacy by appointing a heroin addict to head up the FDA or DHHS?”
I’m not an especially sympathetic individual. I have a lot of experience with drug addicts, and it’s with exactly no apologies whatever that I say this to you unequiovcally: Alcoholics can recover, powder cocaine addicts too, same with benzodiazepine addicts and cigarette smokers. But freebase addicts, meth addicts and especially (especially) opioid addicts are addicts forever, not necessarily in the sense that they’ll always be a user, but in the sense that you’ll never be able to trust them. Period. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been sober for three months or 30 years, they’re incurable, and the idea of putting one in charge of public health policy in the US is (easily) the most dangerous idea Trump’s ever had, and that’s saying a lot.
There’s a scene in Traffic — which, by the way, is as accurate a portrayal of what the drug trade and drug addiction in America actually looks like from the inside as you’re ever going to see in a Hollywood blockbuster — where Michael Douglas’s character, America’s drug czar, meets with a corrupt Mexican general based on Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo. “What are your policies towards treatment of addiction?” Douglas’s character asks. “Treatment of addiction?” the general scoffs. “Addicts treat themselves. They overdose and then there’s one less to worry about.”
That’s the brutal reality of opioid addiction. RFK Jr. didn’t get enough self-“treatment,” which is to say he never suffered a fatal overdose, and now, still alive, he wants to endanger America’s children. Wait, let me refine that: Your children. And your grandchildren. I don’t have children, so it doesn’t make any difference to me, but you should be concerned. As Michael Bloomberg put it, “Want to see a return of measles, mumps and rubella in schools across the country? Appoint Kennedy.”
Trump’s other picks and potential picks for key posts aren’t nearly as crazy as RFK Jr., but it’s still early. Marco Rubio’s going to be Secretary of State, apparently. That’s not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re going to have to calibrate our expectations to the reality that is Trumplandia. Rubio’s 100% sane, or if that’s not strictly accurate, we can say that if you could calculate Rubio’s sanity level out to several decimals, it would round up to 100% sane. You can’t say that for virtually anyone else willing to accept a role in a second Trump administration.
Kristi Noem’s going to be in the mix somewhere (she “hated that dog“), as is Stephen Miller, who — and I say this sincerely, not necessarily pejoratively — should speak with someone about the very dark things going on in his mind.
Thomas Homan’s coming out of retirement (again) to be border czar. Trump loves Homan because (and this a direct quote from Trump) Tom “looks very nasty, he looks very mean.” I don’t know if Mike Waltz — Trump’s pick for national security advisor — is “nasty,” but he’s certainly mean. Mike’s a square-jawed, ex-Green Beret, which is the kind of thing that impresses Trump. (“Look at that jaw. That’s a strong jaw.”)
Elise Stefanik will represent the US at the UN which is — you know — disheartening, to put it mildly. Trump describes her as “incredibly strong.” In reality, Stefanik’s a political lightweight, she’s a 2020 election denier and she presents as that jilted ex-girlfriend who threatened to “burn down your goddamn house because I truly don’t a f-k” when she saw your social media status change to “dating.”
Susie Wiles will be chief of staff. I don’t have any jokes about Susie. I’ll come up with some I’m sure, but the truth is, she’s no joke. Wiles is cunning, capable and, importantly, Trump actually listens to her advice, even when it’s couched in terms of constructive criticism, if you can believe that.
Coming full circle, the next two months are going to be a parade of pleas from all corners of America, including the corporate sector, and the overarching message from that terrified chorus will be this: “Don’t be crazy.” On Tuesday, Exxon CEO Darren Woods urged Trump to use “common sense” when addressing efforts to combat climate change. “The way you influence things is to participate, not to exit,” Woods said, referring to Trump’s determination to distance America from the Paris Agreement.
Meanwhile, Bill Dudley — who once suggested the Fed should leverage monetary policy to keep Trump from winning reelection — cautioned that the market’s response to Trump’s win might be irrational, or anyway self-defeating. “The Fed will have to take away the punch bowl if the Trump party gets too wild, and equity market valuations seem unduly rich,” he wrote, in an Op-Ed. “Investors may live to regret their exuberance.”
I can’t help but be curious for your reasoning on why a cocaine addict can be cured but not a meth or opioid addict?
I am not a fan of RFK, just curious.
My “reasoning”? Ha. I’ll just point you to the Monthly Letters and let you make of them what you will.
More broadly (and I’m not talking to Sophist here, rather I’m just making a general remark), I can already tell we’re headed back into that first Trump term madness where you just wonder where does it stop? So we’re going to stop vaccinating our children maybe because one of the Kennedys is a vaccine conspiracy theorist? Are we going to get rid of stoplights because one of Trump’s favorite Truth Social followers says they’re embedded with mind control devices? Or disband the FDA because somebody on “X” with 100,000 followers says all agencies with an “A” in their acronym are controlled by the ghost of Hugo Chavez? I mean, putting RFK Jr. in charge of public health on an anti-vaccine crusade? WTF are we even talking about anymore?
Don’t forget about that 70 year old Russian conspiracy theory on fluoride in the water he also believes in. Dentists are going to make a fortune with this guy in charge!
You didn’t even mention the “End the Fed” advocates in his mist. All the people who voted for him because he’s good for the market or economy may live to regret that one if he gets anywhere near disrupting the independence of the Fed. I seriously wonder what his wealthy supporters are thinking when we have to have serious discussions about Trump not doing anything too crazy? I guess they are banking on his crazier ideas not getting through, but it’s already clear the inmates are in charge of the asylum this time around. Wait until he nominates Musk or Thiel to be Secretary of Defense.
I have read the monthly’s and can understand your point on addiction and never to be trusted. I don’t understand how a cocaine addict is any different from a heroine addict. If clean, they are both walking on a tight rope for the rest of their lives. One slip and it’s back to the races. No addict is to ever be fully trusted again. Doesn’t matter the substance. My opinion and i recognize this has nothing to do with the point of the article.
You’re incorrect. There’s a difference. And not a small one either. If you don’t agree with that, you’re simply wrong. And that’s the end of this particular discussion.
Ever feel like our timeline diverged from some other version of our universe in 2016 and we got the shitty end of the break? I can’t help but feel that’s a thing that happened.
It is too late for “don’t be crazy”. We should be concerned about “don’t be nasty”. Where nasty’s trajectory leads to moral depravity. History is replete with examples that should scare the daylights out of us.
If you reset your expectations to the worst anything could possibly be, you’re going to be doing yourself a favor. Otherwise it’ll be another 4+ years of daily shock and horror at what is going on. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not inclined to revisit daily drinking to numb myself to the hell I was living in the last time people were stupid enough to elect this malignant narcissist.
Everything that can be made horrible will be made horrible. Get used to the idea now while there is still time.
Yeah, where is Loki when you really need him?
OMG, the Stefanik description. I am dying. That is spot-on. Channeling Alanis Morrisette. She would do it too.
Thank you! I was so hoping that someone would appreciate that.
Kash Patel reshaping the FBI / CIA………..now that would make me regret writing anything negative in these comments
The thing that scares me the most is that the new guy has two hidden goals, never send an appointee to the senate for vetting again and get a third term.
It’s even worse than that Mr. Lucky — these goals are hardly hidden. Seems like this is another page out of the MAGA playbook — “nobody can complain if you publicly announce it first. They just let you do it.”
By 2026, he’ll be decriminalizing felonies with just his mind, just like he declassified national security documents. He’ll just grasp a 4-star general’s shoulder for support, click his black oxfords together, and hope they don’t fall off at the slightest provocation due to the lifts inside that help make him a 6’3″ alpha male capable of enduring endless streams of teary-eyed praise from all the other big men, strong men. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it … (literally).
Precisely my concerns as well. Plus, he’ll have control of all the info coming out of the government, too. Expect inflation to come down to 2% and stay there. Unemployment – a perfect 4%. How many illegal immigrants crossed border during his first year – 0 of course! How many deported? 5 million. How do I know all this? Why, because the government tells me so.
Well, Mr Xi is a very smart man. Surely he can teach Trump how to also get GDP growth to 5% and keep it there come hell or leaded flood water — perhaps by building more houses that no one will ever occupy because they can’t afford them? Just a guess. He’s a builder you know — it’s in his best genes anyone’s ever seen..
And I already can no longer swallow the downplaying of what Trump says as “that’s just how he speaks.” Yeah, that’s the point. The speaks part. He’s perfectly free to have those THOUGHTS all he wants. It’s the speaking part that makes him the worst 3rd grade kid in every neighborhood, and in this case, the President.
while the early childhood vax schedule is arguably super overloaded especially in the first few years, I think most of us here are proof MMR shots are super safe and effective!
“Take health advice from this heroin addict.”
“Support blue-collar America by voting for this silver-spoon billionaire.”
“Stick it to the global elite by worshipping the richest man on the planet.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stupider conjuncture in my entire life.
Don’t forget impose religious doctrine by electing a guy who embodies all of the worst sins laid out in the bible (but at least he’s not gay or transgender!)
Doublespeak is alive and well!
And now we have a Fox & Friends host as Defense Secretary. He’s a veteran, and hats off to him for that, but my God: A 44-year-old Fox & Friends host in charge of the US military?
And Noem as head of homeland security – I feel safer already!
I have no idea how any serious person could have ever voted for Trump. This has to be a farce written by an AI overlord who has a sick sense of humor. There is no other explanation for this level of stupidity.
Catching up on HR before checking the news is usually good policy, but in this case I honestly thought this might have been a tongue-in-cheek comment, perhaps an extension of a previous joke or remark in a recent blog.that I had missed. Sadly, no. Lesson #1 of Trump 2.0 has to be never assume anything is a joke. But on top of that, lightweight Radcliffe as head of the CIA? He practically self-asphyxiated during the impeachment hearings.The only way appointing this Russian stooge could be any worse is if we also had to watch Lavrov pretend he didn’t know anything about it while standing inside the White House.